City has no say on beauty of business signs

ANDREA BROCKMAN

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, November 4, 2002

Sugar Creek resident Ursula Coates recently wrote a letter to the shopping strip's management, complaining about the "garish" sign at the Hollywood Video and the latest addition of Berryhill, "with its flashy and vivid colors."

"I have to wonder what effect this will have on the property values in our subdivision," she writes. "It seems that good taste is a thing of the past."

Sugar Land's director of development services Jim Callaway says as far as he knows, the Hollywood Video sign is not in violation of any city codes. Berryhill, which opened last month, is also in compliance city's building and sign ordinances, he says.

When Berryhill first put up their signs, they were not in compliance with the ordinance, he says, but the issue had nothing to do with the sign's colors.

They had added some accessories besides the name of the restaurant that caused the sign to exceed the allowed square footage, and "as soon as we alerted them of the violation, they fixed the problem. I don't think that they had the intent to not comply," he says.

Callaway says that currently there is nothing in the city's development code that addresses color for signs or buildings.

However, he says for a new building, the allowed materials may restrict the colors it can be painted. For example, brick can not be painted over, but in Berryhill's case, the brick had already been painted by the previous owner, so it was exempt, Callaway says.

Callaway says Sugar Land is discussing future restrictions on building aesthetics, including color, but "this is in no way in response to Berryhill. This is something we have been considering for a long time."

Sugar Land's neighbor Missouri City also has no restrictions on sign color. However, Missouri City has gone a step further in regulating the aesthetics of new and existing shopping strips.

Planning Director Wayne Neumann says in new shopping centers that are developed, the owner of the strip must come up with uniform sign standards for the businesses that lease space. "The signs must be the same color, size and letter type. It does not matter if they are blue, red or white, just as long as they are uniform," he says. "The letters also have to be individually mounted."

As for existing shopping centers, Neumann says the city has made a deal with the owners to come up with a uniform standard for whenever a vacated spot is filled.

For freestanding buildings, Neumann says that the same rules of consistency apply, and if the business wants to add a multicolor logo, then the letters of the business name must be white.